So much for sibling rivalry. Fusing hot-blooded psychedelic rock, garage fuzz, and a dash of Nashville swagger, brothers Jake and Jamin Orall drive the band JEFF the Brotherhood, a two-man wrecking crew tearing through Eclectic tonight at nine. Their sound is tried and true—monster riffs and sticky hooks served Stooges-style, fast, hot, and with a side of mayhem—but JEFF aren’t just any retro-minded punks. They’ve played shows with the likes of Sonic Youth, Fucked Up, the late Jay Reatard (a fellow Tennessean who shared a penchant for scuzzy guitars and punk-pop earworms), and they’re in the midst of an indie press frenzy.
“We are the Champions,” the duo’s second album, garnered critical acclaim, earned them a spot at South by Southwest, and ensured their place on countless “to-watch” lists. “Champions” comes as a capstone on a nearly decade-long career of whiskey-soaked garage punk jams. The brothers Orall formed JEFF the Brotherhood while still in high school and released their first album locally in 2002. Though lauded by critics, their debut effort failed to make waves nationally. The duo accumulated overlooked albums and focused on side projects (like the sorely-missed Be Your Own Pet) before concentrating on JEFF and breaking through with 2009’s “Heavy Days.” Since then, they’ve toured relentlessly, been featured on movie soundtracks (“Cedar Rapids”), and, in possibly the strangest collaboration in recent memory, laid down riffs on an Insane Clown Posse track sampling Mozart and produced by Jack White (“Lech Mich Im Arse”). Yeah.
The power-duo steamrolls Eclectic tonight with recently reunited indie pop darlings Linus. It all goes down at nine. There will be blood. There will be guts. There will be glory.